Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1887-10-20
MoNcoLiAN TARrARs

Rev. Father 0undy's Recital oe Teu
Years Labor with Them.
A strangely-attired Belgian priest
arrived on recent steamer from
China He is Rev. Father A. Gundy.
president Of the Roman Catholic mis-.
sions in Mongolia where he has been
arduously laboring for ten years past
He is man of about forty years of
age. with full flowing beard and a
rich silken gown of an oriental de-
sign. Other marks of dress betoken
him q resident of land most remote
from ours Areporter sought an inter.
view with him. Said he:
MY life work has been with the Tar
tars who inhabit Mongolia and the
scenes of my work have been close by
the great wall of China The CONNER.
cial emporium of Mongolia is Kal gan. a
town of 40. 600 inhabitants. It is here
that the Russians come to buy chamois
skins and tea, which the Chinese resi-
dents of Mongolia raise in immense
quantities The Mongolians themselves
despise tilling the ground. and as the
land belongs TO the different tribes.
their chiefs have been selling it off tc
the Chinese.
1.-THE Mongolians are descendants
of the old Tartars. and raise tens OF
thousands of cattle and horses. Be.
yond this they do nothing except hunt.
They are wild. ungovernable race.
living in tents. They are magnificent
horsemen. something like your wild
Indians. Their religion is Tartaric
Buddhism One of their sacred tenn.
Piles is at Knnbun. In Thibet the
great temple of U Lassa is constructed
after the manner of an Indian Budd.
hist temple. Only one or two Euro.
peans have ever been admitted within
its sacred precincts. They think the
mere admission of foreigner within
its portals would forever defile it.
1.-The Russians who tried to invade
this country three years ago have re-
linquished their efforts. They got
two consulates established on the Mon.
golian coast and they have had to
give way. They now have open ports
as far as Peking, but no further All
the talk you hear of invasions from
the Russians now goes for nothing.
Mongolia is under the domain OF
China
THE country is largely desert al
though with water it is exceedingly
productive. There are very rich mines
of copper and silver az well as mag
niicent beds of coal Mongolia is
colder than China, and consequently
the inhabitants, although DIRE ssing
somewhat like the Chinese, put on
more clothes. They are unlike the
Chinese entirely otherwise. being more
aggressive and warlike. They are not
q tractable race by any means.
Hunting the chamois is great sport
with the Mongolians. They are skilled
horsemen and dead shots with their
weapons, a variety of which they
use. They are also skillful with the
dart
I'm tho ten years that have been
there we have succeeded in converting
about twenty-five thousand of these
wild Tartars. Though wild they are
open to civilizing and humanizing in
fuences; but there are so many OF
them, and their country is SO large.
that it takes a long while to make
much effect upon them as a mass"
The reverend gentleman is accom-
panied by wealthy resident of Brus-
sells. Viscount de Bcnghem. who has
been making tour of certain parts OF
Mongolia and studying up the habits
of the nativcs.-San Francisco E1an,-
liner.